Bus Driver Could Be Suspended With No Pay

A bus driver who was involved in an accident in Palm Beach Gardens last month while taking Jupiter Middle School students home from school, faces suspension without pay next week.

According to School Board policy, if the board votes to withhold bus driver Ronda Green`s salary, she could be fired by the date of the next regular meeting, which is April 9.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at district headquarters, 3323 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach.

Green, of West Palm Beach, was suspended with pay on March 3 by schools Superintendent Tom Mills.

Mills, in a March 3 letter to Green, said, in part, ``According to police records, you were driving the school bus at excessive speeds while taking students home from school and you did not have proper control over the students who were riding the bus. Such actions on your part are sufficiently notorious to seriously impair your effectiveness as a school bus driver and also demonstrate a disregard by you for the safety of children.``

Green was driving west on Hood Road, west of Military Trail, taking 18 students home from school about 4 p.m., when she apparently turned too quickly into a housing complex and flipped the bus over on its side, according to police records.

Six students were injured slightly. They were taken to Jupiter Hospital, where they were treated and released, records indicate.

No charges were filed against Green.

She told police she was substituting for the regular driver. It was the first time she had driven the route.

She had turned abruptly into the housing complex, Green said, after a student told her it was one of the route`s regular stops.